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Doctors have become quite adept in the past few years at
rapidly and aggressively treating acute myocardial infarctions (heart attacks.)By quickly administering clot busting drugs, or by rapidly opening
up the occluded coronary artery using angioplasty, cardiologists can
significantly limit the damage caused by an acute heart attack.

Unfortunately, the medical profession has been slower to
take the next step  to do those things that have been proven to improve
long-term survival after a heart attack.These
tasks include placing patients on appropriate medications, and thoroughly
educating them on risk factor reduction.If doctors followed up appropriately after acute heart
attacks, tens of thousands of lives would be saved each year.

No doubt doctors will get better at this as time goes by.But if you have had a recent heart attack, dont wait for your doctor
to act.If you do, the wait may be
very costly.So take the
initiative.

Here is a check list of those tasks that should be done (or
at least carefully considered) for every patient who has had a heart
attack.Go over this list, and make
sure your doctor has addressed with you each and every item on the list.If he/she hasnt, then it is up to you to address it with your doctor.